


Mistakes were made

by kotekru



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Kissing, Mission Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-26 09:23:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21371848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kotekru/pseuds/kotekru
Summary: On a planet with a civilization just nearing their discovery of warp technology four scientists go missing, Uhura and Chapel are on the team assigned to the case. Can they discover what befell the scientists, and make it out without being caught?
Relationships: Christine Chapel/Nyota Uhura
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	1. Mission Parameters

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!  
This is my first fanwork ever, let's hope I did Nyota and Christine justice. Hope you enjoy :)  
Not beta read, all mistakes are my own.

Stardate 2487.6, Christine was just leaving the medical bay to get some lunch, when the comm unit went off.

“Bridge to Doctor Chapel!”

She went to the console and pushed the button to answer, “Yes, this is Doctor Chapel. Go ahead bridge!”.

“Please report to briefing room 5 in twenty minutes.”

“Acknowledged.”

“Bridge out.”

Briefing room 5 was not far from the mess hall and she still had some time before she would be needed so she headed there to have a quick lunch first. She sat at one of the small tables at the back and watched commander Spock and Captain Kirk talk at the replicators, and she wondered what Nyota might be up to. They had breakfast together, but the bridge was going to be busy that day with new commands to come in later that day, so they couldn’t have lunch as they usually did. 

After the quick lunch she deposited her tray in the disposal unit and went to Briefing room five, to arrive just in time. The room was full, with all department heads already present and seated, and a couple of other high-ranking officers near the walls in strings. She looked around and met Nyota’s eyes across the room from her and greeted her with a charming smile.

“All right, now that we are all here, let’s get started.” Said the captain. To his left Mr. Spock stood and started the agenda for their meeting. Apparently, orders came down to reroute to Starbase 95, where the Captain and Mr. Spock were to personally greet an ambassador of high standing and escort him to the planet of Danragua, for treaty negotiation purposes. However, en route to the starbase, they will need to make a stop and deploy a landing party on another planet, as a group of scientists have missed their last two check-ins.

Apparently, they were studying a pre-warp civilization, that was near developing their first warp-capable ship. A landing party of four would be tasked with locating the scientists. This is where Chris came into the picture, Spock has chosen her to be the medical member of the party. As Spock was explaining, Uhura was most suited due to her knowledge of the culture and language, while a scientist, Ensign Akiskal knew most details about the ongoing research on the planet and was familiar with the technology; Lieutenant Kovács was tasked with security of the landing party. As the meeting was dismissed, Mr. Spock had the landing party remain for further debriefing.

Spock started the briefing with general information about the planet, Veomia. It was class M, and had no moon, revolving around a Sol type star with five other planets, none of which were in the habitable zone. One planetary rotation was approximately 20 standard hours. “Veomia has a strange electromagnetic field that renders star fleet issue electronic equipment defunct.” He finished and gestured for Uhura to continue.

She explained how the culture works, “They are a very private race, but intellectual sharing is essential and expected.” She said. Their social structure loosely resembles that of humans, with no strict class segregation. “The people live very similarly to how 21th century earth humans lived, their technological development is comparable to this era as well.” She concluded.

Finally, ensign Akiskal explained the scientists’ modified technologies, they would have access to a communication station in the house that can reach the Enterprise, as well as hand held devices. These somewhat resembled ancient flip phones and could be used as universal translators as well as peer to peer communication devices. Also, something that excited Christine the most, a fusion cell car that used hydrogen electrochemical reactions to propel a vehicle that resembles twentieth century earth's cars. This would be used for transportation around the city. Their safehouse was located a ten-minute commute from the inner city and about an hour from the shipyard that was working on developing the warp engine.

With the briefing over they all retreated to the medical bay where the necessary body modifications would be implemented, namely the implantation of a small crescent moon shape protrusion on the forehead and contact lenses to mimic the large and dark irises of the natives. Then they were handed their garments, leggings with tunic length flowy robes and knee-high boots. The textiles felt comfortable and luxurious against her skin and looking in the mirror Chris could appreciate the shape as well.

The landing party now ready for departure met in the transporter room. 

"Remember, you are to find out what became of the scientists but avoid any interference with the locals. The Enterprise will be within communications range in approximately 4.3 planetary rotations." Spock informed them.

"Yes, sir!" they all replied in unison.

The four people got on the transporter pads and Nyota gave the order to begin beaming. They rematerialized in a large room with sparse furnishings, a small sofa in one corner, a large window looking out on the back yard. Behind them there was a dining area with a small kitchenette. Looking around the house they found two small bedrooms with two beds each towards the front of the house, and a large office space in the back. Looking around the house it was obvious that the scientists mostly spent their time in the office. The place was barely furbished and looking kind of uninviting with it’s sparseness. Chris could understand though, any personal belongings could risk cultural contamination.

Nyota broke her out of her reverie, "Look for any signs of a break-in, or anything out of place. I'll contact the Enterprise to inform them of out safe landing." She ordered. 

Chris went to the nearest workstation and woke up the computer, while Kovács went looking through the house for any signs of forced entry. Akiskal started looking through the equipment boxes trying to figure out if anything was missing and to gather what they will need for their mission. Christine looked back to her station and started looking through the worklogs and, personal logs to see if there was anything in them that would lead them to the scientists. 

After a couple hours of work, they all gathered in the living area and shared their findings while the sun went down outside. 

" I didn't find anything that would suggest anyone was taken from here, there is no sign of forced entry and the yard is empty. The scientist however must have been taken from here as the car is still in the garage." Kovács informed them.

" I agree, and it must have been a surprise that they were taken, there is nothing in the logs that would suggest that the scientists were suspicious of anything. They were mostly just concerned that the political crisis would interfere with their work." Said Chris.

" I didn't find anything either, they were keeping a close eye on the shipyard and the deterioration of the local political climate, but there is nothing that would suggest that they noticed anything out of the ordinary." Uhura agreed, "Did you find anything, Akiskal?" She asked.

" I found the communicators they were using, I don't think they would willingly leave those behind. I also found some repair tools and some things that look like medical equipment, but they didn't keep any logs of these, and they are not labelled properly so I'm not sure. I also found some things that seem to be weapons of some sort, they use electric beams to incapacitate, but again this is speculation mostly. I sorted them into boxes as much as I could."

" Alright, so we're are reasonably certain that they didn't just leave and forgot to come back. So, they must have been surprised, but as there are no signs of forced entry, I expect that they were either removed by someone they trusted or knew, or that they were surprised right outside and taken from there.” Nyota concluded. “Tomorrow we will look around the neighbourhood, the shipyard, and then in town, but for now we should rest."

They all had dinner from the meal packets they found and then retired for the night. 

" Nyota what do you think happened to them? Why wouldn't they put up a fight?"

" I don't know Chris, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. They can't have gone too far."

" I'm not sure that going into the city is a good idea. The situation seems to be deteriorating quickly, they are nearing a revolt at this point." Chris was afraid that they could end up in the middle of an uprising.

" The protest seems to be peaceful and based on their cultural and social norms I would say that it's not likely to get out of hand. They are peaceful people and very intellectually focused." With a last smile Nyota wished her a good night and turned away from her. Soon her breaths evened out and she was clearly asleep, but Chris couldn't shake the feeling that things would not go smoothly. With a last sigh she also turned on her side and tied to shake off that bad feeling and went to sleep. 


	2. Day 1

The morning came with strange neon pinks in the sky. The team ate some more of the nutrition packs they found last night and got to work. With a last look through the logs they still couldn't find anything suspicious, and aside from the rising anxiety that came with the local strikes they found nothing concerning. Packing a light lunch from the provisions and taking what they believed to be weapons they all piled into the car. Christine at the wheel as she was the only one with any sort of experience with such vehicles. 

"Where did you even learn to drive something like this?" Uhura asked once they were all in the car.

"My dad had an old Tesla from the late 21th century, it was pretty beat up, but he taught me how to drive it anyways." Chris shrugged and started up the car. Unfortunately, it was something like a stick shift that old earth cars had, and she only ever drove automatic, but the others didn't need to know that. She can figure this out, she knew the theory, it couldn't be that hard. 

She reversed the car out of the yard, and with only a few minor hiccups she managed to get the thing on the road. She could feel the nervous looks directed at her as she pushed on the brake a little too firmly at the end of the street, but as they put some kilometers behind them, and her driving got better they all started to relax.

Their first stop would be the shipyard, which was a bit of a drive, and with no music they sat in comfortable silence most of the way, taking note of the strange new world they traversed. The landscape was mostly fields of cultivated plants that took on alien hues of pink and purple with some small mountains in the distance. The fields seemed to be cultivated by automated drones that watered and, in some places, harvested the strange plants.

++++

When they arrived, they found that it was not just them who were curious of the compound, with the parking lot nearly full and people hanging out in small groups near the fence. They got out to take a closer look. 

There was a sizeable structure in the center that looked new and imposing, all high windows and polished concrete. Guards secured the only entrance, but through the huge windows it was clear to see what they were building inside. It looked like a smaller, but more elaborate version of the first warp engine created by Cochrane. Not yet on par with anything the fleet uses nowadays but impressive nonetheless. From the looks of it they were not far from getting it to work. However, if the scientists were right the natives had no idea what the machine would be able to do, they just wanted a new source of energy, they didn't yet plan on using it for interstellar travel. They found no surveillance equipment that they could see, and with no sign of the scientists they got back into the car and started their drive back to the city. Halfway through they pulled over and had lunch looking out at the endless farmland and the distant mountains. The ride back was a lot more amicable, they chatted about the shipyard and earth warp history, the hour-long dive went by quickly.

Once they reached the city they drove around mostly aimlessly. The locals didn't eat or drink socially or publicly therefore they couldn't find any such establishments that the scientists might have frequented. They found the library but it used biometric identification to allow access so they couldn't have gotten in there. They drove by the center, which was a long square with some trees and fountains lining it and a huge statue of the planet itself in the middle. At the end of the square, they found the local government had a building that was heavily guarded with a few protestors milling about outside.

They left and looked for the schools, hoping that maybe they could find someplace that the scientists would have been interested in as well as able to visit, but they found nothing. The schools were all clustered together in a district of their own, but again entry was tied to biometric identification.

With nothing better to do and no more informed than when they arrived, they drove back to the safehouse in the suburbs. Chris parked the car in the yard where they found it and they divided up to go looking through the neighborhood. Kovács and Akiskal went left and Nyota and her right. The streets were quiet, with a car sometime driving past them, but otherwise pretty much lifeless. No people in the yards gardening or playing with their children, no one walking any pets or taking strolls. It seemed the locals really did take privacy seriously. 

They have been walking a couple of minutes in silence when Chris asked, “Do you think they are alive?"

Nyota looked at her out of the corner of her eye, then turned towards her and answered "There is nothing to suggest that they would be dead. I think if that was the case there would be news about that already. These people really don't believe in concealing the truth from others." She looked away, then continued " You worry too much."

"I would like to think I’m Being realistic. They have been gone for weeks, there is no ransom note.” Chris said. “I hope you are right about the people." A shiver ran down her spine at the thought that maybe they have completely misinterpreted the local culture. 

They spent the rest of the walk-in companionable silence and rounded the corner to their street just as Kovács and Akiskal showed up at the other end. 

Once securely in the house again they debriefed, but nothing important came forward. They were not a bit closer to finding out what befell the scientists.

After a quick shared meal, they all retreated for the night.


	3. Day 2

Morning came, they had a small meal, and with no new leads Uhura decided that the best thing they can do is keep looking in town. They took the car, Chapel and Kovács would drive around town and try to find anything suspicious, while Uhura and Akiskal would be dropped off at the government building they found the day before and try to hack into their systems from location.

As Chris drove further and further from the center of the city, she became more and more anxious. When they dropped off Uhura and Akiskal there was already a large crowd gathered around the government building. The streets were mostly empty with all the people there for the protest. It was unnerving to see Nyota enter the mass of people with the scientist in tow, she couldn’t help but worry. Kovács must have felt this, as she started going on about some story from when she was a cadet at the academy, and they were taken for survival training. It was not the most interesting story, but it took her mind off things.

After a while of driving around aimlessly they found themselves near the southern border of the city, and they found a fenced off compound. They drove closer and it became clear that it was some sort of military type establishment. The high walls didn’t allow anyone to see inside, which was strange in this culture that was so focused on transparency of government and science. They parked a way off and took off on foot to take a closer look.

Their scanners indicated a sizable structure underground, but they couldn’t find out anything else. The compound was surrounded by some kind of field that interfered with their equipment, rendering them almost completely useless. They couldn’t distinguish any life signs either. Finally, they resolved to bring the ensign back with them, so he could try to figure out what they were dealing with. They got back in the car and drove around the compound and the surrounding streets for a while, taking note of the gates that were protected and stretches of fence that were not. With having done the most thorough search and tactical analyses they started driving back towards the city center.

++++

When Nyota saw the ensign get hit, she first didn’t understand what was happening. The man suddenly touched his side, and then doubled over on the sidewalk. No one seemed to notice this, thankfully. Once she realized what happened she took the ensign’s other hand looped it around her shoulders and started hurrying towards the nearest side street. Once securely away from the heaving mass of protestors fighting the police, she took out the communicator and hailed Chris. She Picked up almost immediately.

“Chris, you need to come back immediately, Akiskal was shot!”

“What do you mean shot, what happened?”

“I think one of the rubber pellets the police is using on the protestors hit him, in the side. He is bleeding a lot.” She said.

“Okay, we are on our way, meet us at the street we split up. And put pressure on the wound, as much as you can!” then she signed off.

Uhura took the man’s arm again and started down the street in a hurry. Better get there before the ensign passes out, she wouldn’t be able to carry his body even one block. As they followed the street and turned the corner, she could feel his body start to weaken, and sag in her hold. It was only a couple hundred more meters, he could make it.

“Akiskal, it’s going to be okay, it’s just down the street, we are almost there.”

Out of the corner of her eye she could see his pale face and as he tried to answer through clenched teeth. Suddenly their car appeared up ahead, Christine clearly in a hurry to get to them. The car stopped with a screech just before them, and Nyota piled in the backseat with Akiskal. She arranged him to lay down with his head in her lap and put her hand above his on the wound and applied pressure.

“How is he?” asked Chris.

“He seems okay for now, but we need to get back to the house!” came Nyota’s worried reply.

“Alright, keep pressure on the wound.” Christ swerved the car around and took off at breakneck speed towards the safehouse. As they left the inner city, and the traffic diminished, she drove towards safety. She met Nyota’s eyes in the mirror and gave her a reassuring smile, then looked back on the road.

++++

The couple minute ride seemed to take forever, with the whole team in deadly silence. The moment they stopped in front of the house, Nyota and Kovács were out of the car in an instant and pulling on the now unconscious ensign, trying to help him out and into the house.

They rushed down the corridor toward the back of the house, Christine leading them towards the office, while Nyota and the lieutenant carried the ensign. When they entered Chris swiped the nearest desk clean, and they laid out the wounded man. With a couple of quick touches, she made sure that the he was mostly stable on the desk, and then got to work. With no medical scanner at hand she had to examine him the old-fashioned way. Checking the pulse on the wrist first, then she moved onto checking pupillary reactions, all seemed to be as excepted. Chris tore the bloodied remnants of his robe away to reveal the wound, it was sluggishly oozing blood still. With slight pressure around the wound and then on the other side of his body as well she examined the injury and finally determined that there was no exit wound. There was a projectile imbedded in the side of the ensign, it seemed to be in one piece, and no organ was hit, which was a good thing.

“Look for medical supplies, or anything else I can use to extract the bullet and close this up!” she instructed the other two, while she went to wash her hands, and prepare for the surgery.

When she came back Nyota called her over to the other side of the room, where an upended box stood, with all sorts of strange looking equipment laying around. The technology was disguised to look like items from the culture, and without any instructions or labels it took a couple of moments to figure out what they were. Finally, she held in her hand a dermal regenerator, and smiled. Also taking some percepts, she walked back to the table with the ensign and started on the operation.

She instructed Kovács to hold down on the shoulders while she got to work, as the intense pain might awaken the man. First, she had to take the bullet out, taking the forceps and her best medical know how of such primitive techniques she got to work. Once the bullet was out, a fresh trickle of blood left the wound, until she got to work with the regenerator. It was of course not made for mending blood vessels and deeper tissues, but for now it would have to do. She just hoped that they could contact the ship in time, so they could fix the damage fully, before it was too late. Without any hypos for the pain or antiseptics, she resorted to cleaning the area around the wound with some water and hoping for the best.

She took a step back and said, “This is all I can do for him now, we really need to get him back to the ship, and soon.”

“How long does he have?” asked Uhura.

“A day, maybe, if we are lucky. Keep trying the Enterprise!” as she looked from her to Kovács, she saw the pale face of the lieutenant and with a quiet sigh she left the room. The girl will just have to deal with this, nothing to do now, but wait.

She entered the bathroom down the hall and got to scrubbing the blood off her hands, methodically washing every inch, and under the nails. As the blood washed down the drain she looked up to the mirror, and saw her own pale face, full of fear and anxiety. She will have to work on her bedside manner in hostile environments, she thought, make sure the people around her didn’t see the crack in her mask. She had to be strong for them, give them hope. Over her own shoulder she saw Nyota enter the room and put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Chris was not trained for battlefield conditions, but she now regretted not knowing more about these circumstances. It just will not do to not know how to help without the shiny toys of the ship, what kind of doctor can’t attend to a simple gunshot would without the fancy new surgical tools? The hand smoothed down her arm, so she turned and looked up into her girlfriend’s face. She saw the understanding eyes and suddenly she couldn’t look anymore. She felt absolutely diminished, useless. To avoid the conversation looming over them she went to pat her hands dry, and turned away from Nyota, but she would not budge. With a firm hand on her shoulder she turned her around and looked at her.

“Don’t do this to yourself, this isn’t your fault.”

“It is my fault! I’m not a nurse anymore, I should know how to do this, I should be able to attend to a simple bullet wound!”

“Yes, you are a doctor, but field experience is not required, you are not supposed to know medieval techniques.” Nyota assured. “The fact that we don’t have medical supplies is not your fault, and you have stood up to the challenge admirably. If it wasn’t for you Akiskal would be dead already, now he has a chance.” She said and tucked a strand of blonde hair behind Christine’s ear. With a soft caress to her cheek she stepped back and left the room.

Chris stood there and tried to digest what Nyota told her. She tried to internalize what she just heard, tried to fit it into her perception of the situation, but she couldn’t see how her lack of knowledge could be excusable. With a sigh she took a last look at her now clean hands and went back to the office.

++++

“The Enterprise will be in communication distance in about 12 hours. I set up the station to keep trying to open a channel every five minutes.” Said Uhura, she looks at Chris and Kovács, both of whom were sitting at the table with Akiskal, looking at his still form. “I think I want to go back to that compound you found and look around, if we have any chance of finding the scientists it’s that place.” She said.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, I mean with Akiskal out of commission it would be dangerous.” Chris replied, not looking away from the unconscious man. Kovács said nothing, she still looked much too pale, and Chris wondered if she has ever seen anyone get hurt in real life.

“We have to go! Akiskal already figured out a way around their interference field, with any luck the government building and this compound use the same energy field. We could at least scan the inside, to see if the scientists are there.” Nyota argued. “You said there were parts of fence that were not under surveillance, we could go there and take the readings.”

“I know you, if the scientists are there you wouldn’t leave them in there.” Chris countered.

Nyota frowned “Of course I wouldn’t, who knows what is being done to them. If they are there Kovács and I will covertly infiltrate the base and bring them out.” She sounded confident.

“You are insane, you have no backup, you have no real weapons, and you can’t just knock down the gates hoping no one will notice!” Christ was now standing and getting quite riled up. How could Nyota be so foolish, thinking that she could just waltz in there and save the day with nothing, but sheer will and determination.

“This is not up for debate. I am the officer in charge here, and we are going.” Chris stepped forward to argue, but Nyota beat her to it, “I said we are going.”

Christine looked at her girlfriend as if she didn’t even recognize her. She was so angry, how could she completely disregard her opinion like this, it hurt. She took a final look at Uhura and stormed off to the living room.

++++

When night fell Uhura and Kovács gathered the scanners and the strange weapons they had and drove away without a word. Uhura at the wheel, the drive took quite long as she was very bad at driving the car, but they got there safely.

Setting up at one of the unguarded stretches of wall she worked the scanner that Akiskal modified and started taking the readings they would need. There indeed was a subterranean structure, it was two stories, only a couple of rooms on each side of a long corridor. They soon found the entrance too, it was near the other side of the building. They found the source of the energy field, inside and two stories down, although with the modification that Akiskal did, they didn’t need to bother with that.

Finally, she started taking life sign readings, this took a while, and they had to stop halfway as a car drove by. In the end it did seem that the scientists were indeed kept here. They were in a small room, all 4 of them, in the first underground level, very close to the stairs. This was good news, they could easily rescue them, now they just needed to get inside unnoticed.

++++

Chris was worried sick, she was pacing up and down. The first hour she spent looking through the local news feeds, trying to occupy her mind, but all the violence unfurling at the government building just made her feel worse. She then started reorganizing their equipment and labelling anything she could find out what it was. Then she cleaned Akiskal’s wound and redressed it, hoping that it would help at least a little bit. But that was long ago, now she was just walking around, trying to work out the nervous energy in her limbs.

Suddenly there was noise outside, she went to the window to look and saw in the dark several dark figures converging upon the house. Scared she took one of the kitchen knives and went to hide in the back room with Akiskal.

The front door opened, and the figures shuffled in, the light from the kitchen illuminated the first one, and Chris dropped the knife to the ground. In an instant she was at the door, throwing her arms around Nyota. She was safe, without a single scratch on her. She squeezed, until she heard her gasp for air, then let her go and looked at the others. Kovács and the four scientists were looking at her with varying degrees of amusement. With an embarrassed chuckle she stepped back to let them enter.

Once they were all settled, they related the rescue mission, it went off without a hitch. Kovács and Uhura devised a foolhardy plan and executed it to perfection. They even had time to set off a system overload that rendered all data the base had recorded about the captured aliens useless, every last trace of their existence was deleted. It was good news. Now they just had to wait for the Enterprise.


	4. Last night on Veomia

They still had some time until sunrise, and until the Enterprise would be in communication range, when Akiskal came to. Chris was there in an instant, easing him back down on the table. She has been continually monitoring him since yesterday, she was getting tired, all the others have gone to rest, but she had to stay with him, make sure he was okay. That’s the only reason she noticed that someone moved outside the window. She knew better than to look out, she went to the kitchen and in the dark she could see several cars outside the house, with people slowly moving around the house. Instantly she knew that the agency that kept the scientists had come back for them, she sneaked to the bedrooms and quietly woke the others.

They grouped in the back room, as this was the most easily defendable point of the house with only one window and one door. Uhura started desperately hailing the Enterprise, trying to tweak the signal, with one of the scientists helping her. Kovács was near the door handing the scientists their weapons and talking in hushed tones about what to do when they are stormed. Chris stood off to the side, trying to calm Akiskal, assure him that it would all be fine.

Suddenly there was a crackling on the comm station “This is Enterprise, we receive you!”

“Enterprise, we are under attack, one officer injured, we need immediate beam out!” said Uhura.

There was a small pause on the other end while the message was relayed to the Captain and then “Landing party, we will be in transport range in 5 minutes.” Came the nervous answer of the communications officer.

“Understood Enterprise, we are standing by.” Sighed Uhura and turned off the channel.

With any luck the attackers would take the next couple of minutes trying to get into position and set up, the humans had no idea what kind of weapons the agency might have. They could be armed to the teeth for all they knew.

Everything was quiet, the scientists were in cover next to the two sides of the door with Kovács and Uhura next to the window. Chris felt very exposed and helpless as she stood next to the table with Akiskal. For a minute nothing happened, then the from door burst open and suddenly it was chaos. They heard the heavy steps of the intruders getting closer. Suddenly there was smog as two grenades landed in their room, one of the scientists kicked one of them back out of the room, but as it were the one that remained filled the room quickly with thick smoke. They heard the steps getting nearer and the last thing Chris saw before light enveloped them was one of the dark figures entering the office and holding their weapon at Nyota and Kovács.

++++

The moment they rematerialized Chris rose and hurried to Nyota, making sure she was fine she made her way back to the medical team as Akiskal was lifted onto a stretcher. They hurriedly took him to the surgery unit where McCoy was ready and waiting. Chris was ushered out by one of the nurses.

This crushed her, she was again useless, just standing there and waiting. She was not willing to leave until she knew that Akiskal would make it.

The surgery took nearly two hours, she has slid down to sit on the floor outside the OR a long time ago, with her knees drawn up, head buried. She almost didn’t realize that it was over, McCoy was kneeling in front of her, talking to her, but she couldn’t understand anything he said.

“Is he okay?”

“Yes, he’s going to make a full recovery, thanks to you. You did a good job Chris.” Said Leonard.

Suddenly she couldn’t hold it together anymore, it was such a relief to hear, that she started sobbing.

“You should go back to your quarters, unless you want to stay the night getting checkups.” He said while petting her hair gently.

With a soft smile Chris wiped her eyes and stood, “Thank you.” She left without looking back.

++++

Back in her quarters she quickly shed her ruined clothes and took a water shower, trying to erase the last remnants of the hellish mission. As she scrubbed herself clean, and her muscles started to relax, she thought back to Nyota, and how she just ran into trouble head first, almost without thinking.

She was suddenly very tired, she turned off the shower, patted herself dry and dressed in her softest sleep wear. Getting under the warm sheets she sighed. That girl will be the death of her, so bright, so talented, so clever, and yet she completely disregarded her own safety, she was rash, a trait she clearly got from spending so much time with Jim. It was maddening, that she would just run into a metaphorical burning house like that. She was jolted out of her reverie when the door chime sounded.

“Come in!” she said while getting out of bed, she had a feeling it would be Nyota, so she wasn’t surprised when she met her at the door as it closed. Suddenly Nyota was everywhere, her lips on Chris’, her hands on her hips and back and in her hair and smoothing down her arm, and suddenly she was pushed into the wall next to the door, and it was just pure passion. Lips plundering each other, tongues twisting together, Nyota pulled on her hair to expose her neck and started peppering kisses down towards her collar bone.

But it was wrong, it was all wrong, suddenly Chris pushed her away. She saw the confusion and hurt in her eyes, but she didn’t care.

“We should talk.” She said gently.

Nyota looked shocked. “What do you mean?”

“You acted like some overeager cadet fresh out of the academy down there, that’s what I’m talking about.” Chris went to sit on the edge of her bed.

Nyota stood there, frozen “I did the best I could.” She sat next to her girlfriend on the bed.

“You clearly didn’t think it through, you were too preoccupied with being the hero, and it almost cost us our entire team and the scientists.” Christine’s voice was quiet.

“That’s not fair, it was a shitty situation. And we made it out without a single scratch.” Nyota was obviously upset, and she clearly didn’t understand why Chris was mad.

“You left me, alone, with an unconscious ensign, in a compromised safehouse, with no weapons. You took the only vehicle we had and left your medical assistance behind. Do you think that is the best you could do? Enterprise was only a couple hours away.” she said quietly.

Nyota looked horrified, “I didn’t think about that…” she wouldn’t meet Christine’s eyes.

Suddenly she looked up, with tears in her eyes, “Chris, I didn’t mean to leave you. I’m sorry I did that.”

“Shhh, it’s okay. Nothing bad happened.” She smoothed a hand down Nyota’s back and took her hand. “And we can learn. You can learn how to lead a landing party better, and I can learn how to operate on people using dark age methods. That’s what life is about, isn’t it?” She gently kissed her lips.

Nyota finally sagged against her body, and they crawled under the sheets together, looking at each other in the now darkened room. Holding onto one another, they fell asleep, safe in each other’s arms. They would learn together, they had the rest of their lives ahead of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Kudos and feedback are much appreciated!  
You can find me on tumblr @ kotekru


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